Bleeding money: Letters, 8 September 2011

Inefficient learning is standard school fare

Hark, hear again that "Keep kids at school" refrain.

It heads up Labour's thinking for roping in the 24,000 disconnected 15-19 year-olds to learning or earning. Society ignores that stark statistic at its peril. Time to look properly at why so many turn off learning. One reason would cover it, school sucks and so, by association, does learning. No surprise there, inefficient learning is standard fare. Given all students have a "remarkably similar" capacity to learn, shouldn't all do about the same? Fat chance. From day one, many fail to get introduced to enough learn-to-learn skills. Their teachers are so busy being managers, those not learning well enough get lost in the blur. Over-managed learning produces dependent learners.

Denied independence, students loose initiative and drive, they never truly own their learning. Doing tasks that for 50 per cent of the time don't match their skills, their sense of achievement suffers.

What success they do attain attracts positive feedback lacking in quality/quantity. Being constantly assessed on learning that has yet to properly gel, further compounds things. What worries me is the oft-touted solution of making learning interesting, relevant and fun. It shows absolutely no understanding of what's happening. Lifting the veil on what currently passes for quality learning can't help but reveal better solutions.

Laurie Loper, Tauranga

Road disappoints

Interesting to read Route K traffic has finally staggered to 5000 vehicles per day.

It's worth recalling the experts estimated the road would generate 10,000 vehicle trips per day when it opened eight years ago in 2003.

The same experts said that number would rise to more than 15,000 by 2010.

No wonder the road is bleeding money.

Perry Harlen, Mount Maunganui

Chemical concern

When will we learn what the effects of agrichemicals are having on our whenua and the people who live on it?

For two decades now we have poured poisonous sprays like Hicane and copper-based agrichemicals on to orchards without any scientific tests done on their effects to human health. This was all in the name of increased yield. And now orchardists are paying the price and it's called Psa.

You can listen to all the hype and spin from so called scientists and experts in their field but I will take my advice from kaitiaki ki te whenua who tell me Psa is a cancerous manifestation caused from years of chemical abuse on the whenua that kiwifruit grow on.

To throw more chemicals at PSa such as KeyStrepto, an antibiotic not only banned in many countries but held with serious human health risks is short-sighted madness and warrants at least the level of concern of boobs on bikes. This is poison on people and unlike boobs on bikes where you had the choice to look or look away, we don't have a choice to spray or walk away.

Many within the kiwifruit industry are saying no to Keystrepto and so should we as concerned citizens of Tauranga Moana who want our tamariki of tomorrow to live healthy lives. When will we learn that Papatuanuku our Mother Earth, and the guardian of our whenua, is telling us to stop poisoning her?

T Kapai, Te Puna

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